FUELS Act
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on Water Resources and Environment.
Farmers Undertake Environmental Land Stewardship Act or the FUELS Act
This bill increases thresholds for requiring a farm to have a plan to address oil spills.
Currently, regulations require a farm to have an oil spill control and prevention plan that is certified by a professional engineer if the farm's aboveground oil storage capacity is above a certain threshold or if the farm has a reportable oil discharge history. A farm with lower aboveground storage capacity and no reportable history is either allowed to self-certify its plan or not required to have a plan at all, depending on the farm's storage capacity.
Under the bill, the Environmental Protection Agency must require a farm to have a professionally certified plan if the farm has an aggregate aboveground oil storage capacity of 40,000 gallons or more, whereas the current threshold is 20,000 gallons. The bill also raises the aggregate capacity thresholds at which a farm with no reportable oil discharge history may self-certify its plan or is not required to have a plan.
The bill also limits when a farm's aboveground oil storage containers on separate parcels shall count toward the farm's oil storage capacity for the purposes of these thresholds.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on September 17, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on September 18, 2020: Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Eric Crawford (R-AR) introduced it on September 17, 2020, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on September 17, 2020, 2184 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2183 days ago, on September 18, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers